Link
by Aureillia
Summary: My dumping ground for soulmate AU pieces. Always complete. Latest: Loving your soulmate is as easy a breathing, they say. That part was true. What they don't tell you is what happens when you stray from the path, and, inevitably, the person, you were made for. - dawn/kenny & dawn/paul


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

Is this yet another submission for an overdone trope that is incredibly cliche and predictable? You bet your sweet ass it is. I've always been a sucker for soulmate au's.

This series, if you want to call it that, will be comprised of usually disconnected soulmate one-shots/drabbles. Some of them will be connected and some won't. Each ''chapter'' will be based around a different soulmate theory; written words, first spoken words, red string, timer, etc.

If anyone has a specific pairing and prompt they'd like to see written then feel free to chuck me a PM or leave the request in a review.

* * *

**Clockwork **

* * *

_Always said that you were my man to be_  
_But I guess I was in love with your memory  
\- In Another Life, The Veronicas_

_..._

**In which the name of your soulmate is written on your left wrist.**

* * *

Dawn is four when she feels an odd sensation on her wrist. When she looks down, cobalt hued eyes wide in amazement at the newly etched mark that had appeared only moment ago, pretty black writing stares back at her.

_KENNY KENGO._

She frowns when she remembers that she cannot read.

**xxx**

When she is ten, Kenny announces to the world that one day he's going to make her his wife.

The world is small, though, only consisting of the inhabitants of Twinleaf Town, but to Dawn that is everything. She has Kenny and he is her soulmate and that is more than good enough for her.

**xxx**

Twelve is when the itch begins and nothing can quite scratch it in the way Dawn wants to. She yearns for more than a small town, than a few houses and a small laboratory. Pokemon are amazing, she knows this but she wants to learn more. Needs to taste the wild for herself. That's why, even though the hurt in Kenny's eyes hurts her, when the chance comes she does not hesitate to take it.

''Promise me you won't forget,'' Kenny whispers.

His hands shake and she can hear the way he fights to keep his voice from breaking, but she pretends not to notice. This is a pokemon journey, and she's known since before she could even spell the word that she was going to follow her in mother's footsteps and become a Coordinator.

Kenny is her soulmate and she'd known him since she could walk, and even though he represents everything the world has taught them to cherish they're still ten and there's an entire world waiting out there for her. Still, how could she ever forget the one person in the world who shared half of herself?

It still made her giddy whenever she caught a glimpse of the writing on his wrist- her name. She thinks that love might be an appropriate word for them. Sure, they're young, but what else could this be? He's her past and her future, there's nothing more to it.

He is embarrassing stories and dreams for a shared future, but that's just the thing. He's her future and her chance to shine is now. She is Dawn, _hikari_, and even though she's the light in both name and his eyes she'll never be able to burn bright enough if she settles for just Twinleaf Town.

Pokemon journeys and soulmates were an integral part to the world. She intends to have both.

But twelve is also when she meets Ash Ketchum and Brock Slate for the very first time, and the world becomes so much more than just Kenny and Twinleaf Town.

**xxx**

Dawn video calls him as often as she can. It isn't anywhere near as often as she would like. But between her Coordinating aspirations and Ash's Gym battles, she just doesn't have nearly enough time to dedicate to anything that isn't pokemon.

Constantly having to be on the move makes it all the more difficult, because they're never in any one place for longer than three days.

To rectify this, she sends him letters seven pages long because her adventures with Ash require a lot of context and there's always so much to write about. She details her pokemon and how much they'd grown in only the short two months she's been away; lists poke puff recipes because she knows how much he likes her creations; asks him what he thinks of an appeal idea; recounts her latest Coordinating event even though she knows he watches them all.

Her letters are always sealed with a pink love heart and stamped with a kiss on the bottom left corner.

**xxx**

Each day that passes promises something new. This is what she loves about travelling throughout the land; she gets to see her region for everything that it was, is and ever will be. Sinnoh is stunning and breathtaking and invigorating and every other synonym for the word.

Brock is an amazing cook and he teaches her new things to experiment with for her poke puffs. Her pokemon have grown by leaps and bounds by this point, already reaching in five months what she could do on her own in two years. They're stronger, but to her the most important part is that they're happy.

Contests test her ability to come up with new appeal strategies, and she cannot help but feel so at home when she is on stage. Fashion and beauty have always gone hand in hand with her. It's only natural that something like Coordinating, which already flowed in her veins, came to her so easily.

She misses Kenny terribly. That isn't something that can be helped, though. What else was she supposed to feel when her soulmate was on the other side of the region?

He fills her with love and hope and everything positive. He's everything right in the world and she can't see it any other way. She's sure she loves him. Sometimes he sends pressed flowers that accompany his letters, and she keeps them all tucked away in her backpack. Sometimes, when it's late and she cannot sleep, she pulls one out and holds it close to her chest.

In a way, it's like having a piece of Twinleaf with her.

Just as Kenny fills her heart with love and mind with cherished memories and images of the future, Ash's purple-haired rival invokes everything of the opposite to the extreme. Dawn finds him completely appalling, and the first time she sees him review a pokemon's potential before pulling a disgusting expression and releasing it once more makes her feel sick.

Paul is brash and rude and all of the things she loathes in a person. Or at the very least, as close as she can get to loathing a person. She isn't a spiteful girl. He mocks Ash and taunts her, calling him weak and her pathetic. Whenever Ash challenges a Gym she begins to dread the possibility of seeing him there.

But Ash has always been too kind for his own good, and as much as she hates to admit it Paul is a good trainer. So despite the disrespect Paul regards them with, Ash always looks forward to seeing Paul's progress, and because she's a good friend, she tries to play the role of mediator. This only ends with her getting even more insulted than Ash.

His methods a cruel. His exterior is stoic. His razor-sharp tongue always leaves her with a wounded ego and bruises that are not of the physical kind.

Paul Shinji is the one part of her week she will not write about.

**xxx**

As all good things do, her year with Ash comes to an abrupt end.

The Lily of the Valley Conference is something she'll never forget. It's raw power and high tension and high stakes, and although Ash battles with a fervour she doesn't think he's possessed before, it still isn't enough. He inevitably loses. Paul loses, too. She finds herself feeling a weight in her chest when Ash's rival unwillingly displays a brief flicker of dismay across his face.

A soft smile forms on her lips when he mutters his thanks to a fallen pokemon- something he'd never done before, even when they won. Her mind flashes back to his and Ash's match and she can't help but wonder how much of an effect the latter really ended up having on his hardhearted rival.

When it's over- much too quickly, didn't they only leave yesterday? -Dawn knows that it's time for her to go her own way.

He leaves her with a high five and high hopes, and although it's bittersweet, she knows they're destined for different paths. She can't stay with him and Brock forever. That would tie her down, make her unchanging. Nobody accomplished great things or fulfilled their dreams and legacies by standing static their whole life.

And so, with a smile on her lips, she heads for Twinleaf. When she departs for Hoenn two weeks later Kenny is right by her side.

**xxx**

It isn't until she's waving victoriously from where the spotlight shines on the stage in Lilycove City that she feels the first tear in the canvas of her life.

Everything is fine until it isn't. One moment she's in a state of euphoria, waving triumphantly from her position on the stage in Lilycove City. The deafening roar of the crowd sparks her adrenaline and and everything is absolutely perfect- and then she sees Kenny's face in the stands and suddenly her smile falters.

Her wrist burns.

xxx

She's two years into her journey now, still in Hoenn with her soulmate, and Dawn thinks she has a much better grasp on the world and of love at fourteen than she did at twelve. Twelve was nice but it was built upon fantasies and blissful ignorance and childhood wonder. Her travels with Ash, her near death experiences proved that.

Dawn knows she isn't the epitome of wisdom by any means but she likes to think that she's at least slightly more mature than most girls her age. How many of them could say they'd faced Arceus, the God of all pokemon in every literal sense, and lived? Darkrai and Giratina had been no walk in the park, either.

She's a little more down to earth, these days. This can be attributed to the above, however, it's also a circumstance of what an accomplished Coordinator she's become. Living up to her mother's legacy was something she'd only ever been able to dream of as a child, but now...

Well, now it seemed less of a distant wish and more of a slowly approaching goal.

At twelve she emerged victorious at the Hearthome Collection, and as a reward held the honour of gracing the tiara upon her head.

At thirteen she was the favourite to win the Sinnoh Grand Festival, and even though she came out as runner-up it had still been an almost impossible feat for a girl her age.

At fourteen she was the youngest victor to claim the prize of the Wallace Cup, and she still holds an Aqua Ribbon to show for it.

She's travelled two regions and is halfway through her third. She found her soulmate before she'd even began her pokemon journey, and he'd taken up _her_ dream just to be by her side. He loves her, she knows he does. He loves her in only a way soulmates could love each other, and only soulmates could understand.

It's in the gentle kisses he peppers on her cheeks and forehead in the early hours of the morning, before the first rays of the sun have spilled across the horizon in brilliant shades of yellow and pink and orange.

The canvas is an intricate masterpiece, but she just can't shake the feeling that something isn't right.

Soulmates are simple. You find them, you fall in love and you live your happily ever after. Kenny's name marks her wrist, Kenny is meant to be her soulmate, and it's Kenny who she's pictured spending the rest of her life with since the moment she found out exactly what soulmates were.

Her partner for life, her best friend, the person who understood her in ways that nobody else ever could; there weren't meant to be complications.

His kisses begin to feel like glass against her skin, and for the second time in her life her wrist began to burn.

**xxx**

Kenny passes her the map of Unova as they silently make their way through White Forest, and Dawn nearly cries out as she realises what the problem is. It's so glaringly obvious and she wants to scream because how could she possibly not have seen it? Unova is beautiful and it is serene and it holds the key to her existential crisis at the ripe age of sixteen.

They've been here for three and a half months.

First they landed in Castelia where they marvelled at the wonders of narrow streets and spent the evening in a small park, letting the autumn leaves whirl around them like a magic. Next was Driftveil, where they made their own special lures and she taught him how to fish for Pokemon.

Then it was Nimbasa. Pretty street lights entranced her, the music of theme parks dizzied her into a childlike high, and when he pulled her into a kiss underneath the kaleidoscope of flashing colours that was the famous Rondez-View Ferris Wheel it was like a dream.

The rest of the cities followed the same suit. Striaton, gardens and architecture. Nacrene, museums and art. Humilau, weathered piers and tourist huts. Strangely enough, Opelucid City was the only one that had made her feel alive; Lacunosa Town had her appreciating tradition, but left her with a sense of emptiness.

Looking at it now, everything fell into place.

Kenny didn't change. He didn't grow, hadn't made any progress since she set out on her own journey at twelve. That was four years ago and verging on five. She had been his reason to begin travelling, to take up more of a practical interest in Pokemon and start trying his luck as a Coordinator.

It suddenly hits her that the time she felt unhappy seeing him in stands wasn't because he was there, but because he was just another spectator. He's a Coordinator too, after all. It shouldn't have just been her up on that stage. By the end of their Hoenn adventure they'd both had enough Contest Ribbons to compete in the Wallace Cup, but he hadn't even made it beyond the Appeal Round.

She felt stupid, because it had never occurred to her that Kenny didn't enjoy Pokemon Contests. Their time in Unova is nothing more than a representation of their relationship, and this scares her. It's terrifying, because the prospect of facing a world without her soulmate might as well be equivalent to death itself.

But how can she improve if she cannot change? Unova is sightseeing and a steady pace and _thesamethesamethesame_. She's following her dream, her legacy, building upon the foundation her mother laid out for her, and it isn't something she can simply give up for one boy. Even if he is her soulmate.

Travelling with Ash was new and thrilling, always an adventure to go on or a another pokemon to discover. She craved that like she needed the air to breathe, and it wasn't as simple to just settle. He is her one chance at true love and Arceus, it's eating her alive but he can't even see that because even _this_ makes him happy.

It's right there on the map in her hands, after all.

Opelucid City: A convenient city of rapid change, showing no traces of the past.

Lacunosa Town: A town where all honour old customs, living as methodically as clockwork.

For the first time in her life she's questioning whether the perfect life she'd envisioned with him is really everything she wants and she doesn't know how to make it right. Kenny is like Lacunosa Town, like clockwork. He moves forward and forever ticks on but it's always at the same pace, in the same circle.

Dawn doesn't want clockwork- she realises she's been in love with the version of a boy she grew up with, and then filled in the blanks all on her own with her unique idea of perfection.

But she wants her soulmate, because they're so lucky to have found each other and to have known each other their entire lives, and how selfish could she possibly be to even think about throwing all of that away? Some people went without ever meeting their soulmate. Some weren't even born with one.

Yet here she was, ruining herself over whether or not this boy, the one who was her match in every single possible way, was really what she wanted.

On that very same night, after stewing in her thoughts for so long that she could not bare to sit and do nothing anymore, she grabs his face and smashes her lips into his unceremoniously. It isn't like any of their other kisses have ever been; there's nothing passionate nor loving about this. It isn't gentle or sweet, hell it's barely even what a kiss between soulmates should be, but she's desperate to feel _something_.

She doesn't.

Whatever she does feel is far from what she wanted to, and something breaks inside of her when she realises that she cannot deny it any longer.

The canvas finally rips itself to shreds and despite having known it was coming, Dawn is in no way prepared.

**xxx**

The day she finally makes the decision to leave everything she knows behind and venture on her own to Johto changes everything.

Kenny doesn't come to see her off. Part of her thinks it's probably for the best, and the guilt almost eats her alive when she realises that it's the freest she's felt in years. It's totally and utterly wrong. Your soulmate wasn't supposed to confine you, they were meant to help you grow.

Where did they go wrong?

She hoped that her lone journey of self-discovery would be able to answer that and, if all went well, she'd get over this ridiculous phase and run into Kenny's waiting arms before the next Wallace Cup began. He didn't hinder her progress, so to speak. It simply felt like she was back in Twinleaf when they were together.

Her thirst for the unknown would simply need to be quenched. It couldn't be that hard, could it?

She doesn't notice it at first, because she's too busy focusing on how to uproot herself from everything she's ever known without ruining her life in the process.

It isn't until she's already on the dock awaiting the arrival of the ferry that she sees it.

It comes as such a shock that she lets go of her ticket, and if it wasn't for Ambipom's quick reflexes then her resolve in paper form would have been lost forever to the churning tides of Canalave City. But the worried chattering of her pokemon and her almost lost ticket do not register in her mind.

Her eyes are wide, uncharacteristically horrified as she tries and fails to register what's happening; what _can't_ be happening. She couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, because what she's looking at shouldn't be possible.

Black writing has always stained the inside of her left wrist. Throughout Dawn's life that has always been the one constant reminder of something permanent, a never-changing sense of security to constantly reassure her that she'll always have something to return to.

Except now, all of that is gone and and Kenny's name no longer marks her skin.

_PAUL SHINJI._

She can't tell if the strangled choke that escapes her throat is one of anguish or relief.

* * *

**In rare cases, your soulmate may change. The reasons vary and there aren't enough cases to solidify a direct cause, but the most reoccurring trait found through studies conducted is that a soulmate will change in the event of you growing incompatible. Though unusual, your needs in life may change and sometimes your given soulmate can no longer fulfil those needs.**

**...**

* * *

Let me know what you think. I have an idea for a second part to this, but I guess it's up to you guys whether or not I just leave it as is and continue on with a separate one-shot.


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